“Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him.” (Psalm 32:6)

In our modern world, the rush of great waters threatens. That same overwhelming rush was part and parcel of the lives of the great men and women who walked the earth before us. We hold the misconception that somehow they glided over the top of tumultuous waves, immune from their threatening force and devastation. We are wrong in that belief.

Sequestered in a rotten jail, Joseph knew the choke hold of injustice; the three Hebrew men heaved into a blazing furnace understood the horror of hatred unleashed against them. The patriarch Moses trudged through the desert with millions whining in his ears and complaining every chance they had. Elijah the prophet competed against 300 pagan priests for bragging rights; Jacob was tricked and denied the wife he’d worked seven years to gain. In a foreign land among strangers, Ruth knew the humiliation of utter poverty in a culture that demeaned widowhood; stolen from her secure home, Esther was placed in the precarious position of being up for grabs by a ruthless pagan king.

King David made note of how God’s servants survived and even thrived in their circumstances: “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7) These ancient men and women hid themselves within the safety of Jehovah’s protection and clung to the truth that he would preserve and rescue them in his perfect time.

These examples from the past whisper hope to our troubled hearts today. With one voice, they direct our attention to the Living God, who promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).

Go ahead, dearest Lord; keep your eye fixed on us, and surround us with your strong arms of deliverance, even today -­‐ especially today.

Elizabeth A. Mitchell